David McGee

The Strange Adventures and Alluring Music of Alessandro Stradella

An exhaustive appreciation of Alessandro Stradella, one of the most enigmatic, colorful and gifted composers of the 17th Century, from whom Handel borrowed for Israel in Egypt and whose amorous inclinations led to his assassination in 1682.

Nature's Temple

Winter in Verse

Shakespeare, Keats, Robert Burns, Thomas Campion and Robert Frost reflect on the modds of winter. Plus seasonal-oriented cartoons starring Mickey Mouse and friends and Woody Woodpecker. Bing Crosby makes an appearance too.

Album Of The Year

Dietrich. Deneuve. Garbo. Gardot.

DIETRICH. DENEUVE. GARBO. GARDOT: In The Absence--the Deep Roots Album of the Year 2012--Melody Gardot, trading on mystery and control, is vibrantly present and just out of reach. That’s the point.

Border Crossings

The Wonders of the Beggar’s Kingdom

With its 2012 album, The Wonders of the Beggar’s Kingdom, Lithuania's Sutaras went beyond cheery celebrations of its native land’s music and culture and addressed the reality of the outside world where most live in 'uncertainty about what tomorrow will bring.'

Features / News

The Enigma Variations: Living with Lawrence

December 2012 was the 50th anniversary of David Lean's epic, Academy Award winning Lawrence of Arabia. Contributing editor Christopher Hill was nine when he first saw the movie. Herein he reflects on that life altering event.

Deep Roots Theater

Ride Lonesome (1959)

It's back to the old west for Deep Roots Theater, as we present the penultimate film in director Budd Boetticher's 'Ranown Cycle,' RIDE LONESOME, starring Randolph Scott and written by Burt Kennedy. With the 1959 cartoon, 'Pill Peddlers,' starring Heckle and Jeckle.

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

In Her Own Words: Up-and-Coming Illustrator Sairom Moon

Our heralded kids' lit blogger JULES interviews up-and-coming illustrator Sairom Moon, and kicks off the new year by blessing us with a couple of new illustrations from the redoubtable illustrator Elisa Kleven.

Classical Perspectives

‘As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you’ll know you’re pure within’

Introduced on stage in 2005, James Whitbourn's Annelies, the first adaptation of Anne Frank's diary into a large-scale choral work, will at last be released on CD on Jan. 22. Here's our preview of the first important recording of 2013.

Gospel Feature

‘Human Hands Getting Real Close to the Word of God’

An interview with Michele Clark Jenkins, co-editor of the Sisters In Faith Holy Bible, a new resource for African American women, 'a sister-to-sister guide through the Word of God,' as Ms. Jenkins says.

Gospel News & Notes

Gospel News & Notes – January 2013

Inez Andrews, the iconic songbird contralto for the Caravans from 1957 to 1962, whose solo recording of 'Lord, Don't Move My Mountain' was a major gospel and R&B hit, died on December 19, 2012. An appreciation of the gospel great ensues.